Rules for the Rich
by Amethyst Ice
Summary: Tomoyo lives a dull life being rich and wisked away to banquets every night. Eriol is the most persistant of her suitors, but his charms are all an act, aren't they? With the rules SHE'S supposed to follow, she doesn't know what's real anymore!


TOMOYO AND ERIOL FLUFF!! It is going to be _soooo__ kawaii!!! I can't wait!!! Enjoy everybody! I know I will!!! Who-hoo!!!!_

Disclaimer: I owe not Cardcaptor Sakura. *tear*

**Rules for the Rich**

**Ch.**** 1**

****

**_Top ten rules to abide by for the more fortunate:_**

_Rule number one: Look beautiful at all times._

_Rule number two: Give to plenty of charities so everyone admires you and the less fortunate cannot complain._

_Rule number three: never show what you are thinking or how dull certain parties and get-togethers are._

_Rule number four: Smile constantly with closed lips, even if it means nothing._

_Rule number five: Make polite conversation, and laugh at a gentleman's bad jokes._

_Rule number six: Never be yourself in front of others of the upper-class._

_Rule number seven: Do **everything gracefully and excel in ****everything or don't do it at all.**_

_Rule number eight: Always be sure to have lots of money and flaunt it any way you see fit._

_Rule number nine: Marry a man of great wealth and good looks._

_Rule number **ten: Never fall in love with a man before marriage, his charms and charitable ways will never last that long, and you never know if that man in truly sincere.**_

Tomoyo sighed, bored. She had written down what her mother had taught her at a very young age. She was rich to put it simply, and being rich was a big responsibility. Dull to say the least, but a responsibility none-the-less. Sure people thought having a ton of money was heaven, but it wasn't. You still have to be careful what you spent it on, you had to decide which charities to give to and which not to, which was a _much heavier task than anyone could imagine when other __'more fortunate' people frowned down upon you if you donated a couple grand to some seemingly miniscule organization. _

The trick was to meet everyone during get-togethers and find what interested them, and other little bits of information on their background from other people. _Everyone _had at least a _slight _amount of gossip about their rich snobby neighbors. You couldn't donate to the meat implanting factories because some might say it was cruelty to animals, and you didn't want a _vegan _on you tail for months at a time, their eyes disproving and following you snidely wherever you went. Helping political groups was _definitely _out of the question unless you wanted a war on your hands. Foods were a 'steer clear' also, obviously. If you helped pay for apples of cherries, imports would stock up on it and people who were allergic would puff up like a balloon or shrivel up and die of hunger seemingly, their lips curled up in disgust when they found out _you _had been behind the charade. For the rest of their lonesome, dull lives they would only think of you as a murderer, holding some grudge against them and trying to _kill them with food poisoning._

Yes, some things were very interesting indeed, in a horribly vile sense of humor. At banquets there was always the polite conversation, but nothing extraordinary. Nothing _funny _ever happened. Not the kind of funny that you could laugh out loud, clutching the sides of your stomach until tears formed and trickled down your face. Only during horrible instances was it ever _slightly _funny, like the time when Mrs. Burrove sloshed punch all over her white evening gown when her grandson had come for a visit. He had been holding up a writhing gardener snake between his slightly pudgy, dirty fingers, and then dropped it down the front of her gown. Tomoyo had found it oddly exhilarating, but knew that if anyone had laughed, chaos would ensue.

_Hm__… thought Tomoyo, tapping her feathered quill against her chin as she lay neatly on her white silky comforter, the parchment she had been using propped in front of her. She was encased in pillows and collectable dolls and bears, all of them looking as if they had never been touched. She was currently on her stomach, her feet swinging back and for in a slow, even motion. With nothing better to do, had decided to write about her boring and dull life along with the boring and dull life of other 'rich' people, be they snobs, the silent and stern type, or decent human beings. _

_Maybe I should change the rules to twenty. There are so many, and I am sure 'do not laugh' ought to be one of them. _She frowned slightly as she tilted her head to the side in consideration. A long strand of dark, wavy hair cascaded passed the containments of her shoulder and onto the parchment before her. She tucked the strand of hair behind her ear without much thought, and started tapping the paper with the back of the white and black feather instead. To add it or not to add it…

"Miss Tomoyo, you need to prepare yourself for the banquet," a soft, feminine voice called. 

A maid appeared in the doorway to her bed chambers. She was a round, short little thing with a heart-shaped face and two clear-blue eyes that almost looked gray. Her frizzy light hair was pinned up in a kerchief today, but her attempts to tame it were always fruitless. Even now Tomoyo could see a few wisps of graying dirty-blonde hair tumbling loose in front of her eyes. 

"Thank you Giselle, I will ready myself immediately. May I ask how long I have to prepare before mother and I have to leave? Whose house will we be residing in this time?"

"It is the house of Ellington the third, miss," Giselle commented in a hushed voice, void of all emotion as her head declined slightly. Tomoyo had to catch herself to stop from groaning. She loathed the man almost as much as she loathed his son. "You will be leaving in a little over three hours milady. I along with the other maids that are currently not busy may help you wash and dress if it pleases you."

Tomoyo nodded serenely. "Yes, thank you. The assistance would be nice if you and the other women are not busy."

"Oh, no milady. I'll fetch them right away." Giselle gave a tiny curtsy and turned on her heel, a swish of skirts and then she was gone.

Tomoyo sighed and gathered the splayed skirts that fanned out around her, rising to her feet and gathering her parchment, which she placed in a small box that resided in her armoire. She looked at herself in the mirror as if feeling sympathetic toward the stranger she saw there, who seemed to have such great sadness in her heart that nothing would ever lift the clouds around her world and let the sun shine through. Tomoyo could not even think of _one time in her __whole life in which she had been happy. The memory simply evaded her. _

"Well, I might as well chose the gown I'll be wearing for tonight," she commented softly to herself, wishing desperately that she didn't have to go. The banquet tonight not only took place at a stuffy, ill-mannered, pompous, old man's estate, but she would have to put up with his son… Ellington the _fourth.If she thought _that _was bad, she would have to wait until she was reunited with her dinner partner; the sly young man who never showed his thoughts. The man with a smile that could mean anything and everything yet perhaps nothing at all, the man who could charm wood or the rocks beneath his feet if he so decided, the man who made any and every young lady swoon on their feet with one covert look from his deep, sapphire eyes. Every young lady with the exception of __one that is._

He was the man that made her insides burn with anger every time her looked at her as if he knew her. She wanted to slap him with every smart comment he made, and shove utensils up his nose if he even _thought about touching her hand again, let alone kiss it! The man she loathed among __all of the other suitors there; Hiirigizawa._

_Eriol__ Hiirigizawa. _

Well, there's the prologue! I hope you liked it! I _really like this story, so the more reviews I get, the faster I will up-date! Okay? Does it sound like a deal? _

I don't know if Sakura will come up in this fic or not, so who knows. It depends what I need at the time. Well, please review! And Tomoyo is going to have a bit of a… _temper in this story. Not too terribly though… I _hope. __

E + T = **_Love ^________________^_**  


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